Monday, March 30, 2015

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) is one of the world’s leading
beverage companies and the top producer of flavored carbonated soft drinks in
the Americas. A publicly traded company headquartered in Plano, Texas, DPS has
21 manufacturing centers, over 115 distribution centers, and about 19,000
employees. Through a century-long sequence of mergers and acquisitions, the
company’s brands include A&W Root Beer, 7Up, Hawaiian Punch, Nantucket
Nectars, Sunkist, Schweppes, and of course, Dr Pepper (created in 1885) and
Snapple (created in 1973). The main About Us page is Our Company.

OVERALL GRADE: B

The DPS site suffers from a tendency toward elegance at the
expense of functionality. We first noticed it on the Awards
page, which has many pretty pictures, but no text related to awards. Then we
accidentally discovered that hovering over a photo reveals text. And then we
felt we had to try hovering over every
image on every page, just in case we
were missing something. Yes, the bold graphic look of images without text is
elegant, but marketing mavens know that captions are one of the most-read elements
on any page. It’s a waste not to have captions on permanent display, ideally in
service to company history. At the very, very least, a “hover here for more
info” graphic will ensure that visitors realize text is available.

Products/Services: C

The main About Us page has five teasers (brands, investing,
sustainability, operations, mission) in a sensible layout with well-chosen
photos. Unfortunately, the page lacks a concise statement of DPS’s nature and
purpose. Plenty of relevant information appears on the Operations, Mission, Leadership Team,
and History
pages, but for visitors who get no further, a summary should appear on the main
About Us page.

The History page
offers some good corporate storytelling. Why not make it more vivid with vintage
ads or logos of some of the DPS beverages that have been popular for decades?
Given that DPS is a conglomeration of brands, an illustrated timeline might
work even better than a narrative.

Speaking of discrepancies: why does the Mission page have
no obvious relation to the Values
page? Why does Our
Operations introduce “Rapid Continuous Improvement (RCI),” which seems like
a either value or a way to implement a mission, but isn’t mentioned elsewhere?
Our Commandment
9 of About Us pages is, “Worship clarity.” That includes looking for discrepancies
throughout the site and adjusting the focus on business history as needed.
Sites as large as DPS’s require frequent checking to make sure they remain
internally consistent.

Personality: A

At the foot of the main About Us page, in
a carousel display, are company leaders, each with a photo, name, title, and
link to a full bio. This is a welcome innovation. The bios are top notch: they
mention not just where the person has worked, but what he contributed at each job.
(Alas, there are no female executives at this level.)

Bravo also to the FAQ
(available from the Contact
page), which presents just the sort of questions that consumers with inquiring
minds like to ask: “Why is it called ‘cream soda’?” “What exactly is Dr.
Pepper?” “Did Yogi Berra ever own Yoo-hoo?”

Accessibility: C

The Contact
page (accessed via a link in the footer) is sparse but adequate: USPS and phone
information for 5 different departments, plus a form for sending an email for
half a dozen different reasons (consumer questions, media inquiries, potential
suppliers, etc.). This would be an ideal place to encourage interaction on
social media, but the social media icons are confined to tiny print in the
footer.

TAKEAWAY

The main About Us page should always have a quick summary of
your company as well as great pics and teasers, for the sake of visitors who
choose not to explore any other pages. And always, always, always check that
pages within your site are consistent and coherent.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Monday, March 16, 2015

In 1898, the Simon brothers landed at Ellis Island after
fleeing religious persecution in Eastern Europe. A transcontinental train took
them to Nebraska, which looked like their native Latvia. There they resumed
their profession as butchers, founding their own company in 1917 to provide
high-quality beef to restaurants and grocers. In time they expanded to mail
order, retail locations, and sales via telephone and Internet. Today the company
– one of America’s largest marketers of beef – is privately held and run by the
fourth and fifth generations of Simons. Its 1,800 employees are still based in Omaha.
The main About Us page is Our Company,
accessed via About / Company Info in the footer of every page.

OVERALL GRADE: A

Products/Services: A

Omaha Steaks has condensed most of their About Us material
into one page, Our
Company. It includes a pithy summary of the company: its business,
location, divisions (with links to each), and employees. Sidebars left and
right illustrate the company’s mouth-watering products, offer testimonials, and
provide contact information. Our Commandment 7
of About Us pages is, “Keep navigation easy.” Omaha Steaks does that.

First of all, they form a well-written narrative company history,
laid out in a way that makes it easy to get through them all. (If all this
information had been squashed onto one page, how many visitors would have made
it to the end?) Second, the text covers all the bases: the who, why, and where
of the company founders, the reason for the company name, the development of various
forms of distribution (mail order, phone, Internet), notable awards, company
divisions, and the current management. Each page is illustrated with an
appropriate photo. High marks to Omaha Steaks for their corporate storytelling!

Our only quibble is that the teaser and link to the business
history pages on the main About Us page
should be made more enticing, perhaps by using one of the vintage images used
on the history pages.

Personality: A

Our Commandment 3
of About Us pages is, “Reveal thy personality.” Surprisingly few companies
do as good a job of this as Omaha Steaks. Its personality comes through very
strongly in the History pages, which start by describing
the founders and finish by stating
that the fourth and fifth generations of the same family are now running the
company.

Accessibility: A

Omaha Steaks does much of their business online or by phone,
and they make it easy to order. The header has a toll-free number, store
locations, and a live chat option. The footer has a link to a Customer Care page that offers all these options.

TAKEAWAY

Let a well-written corporate history explain why your
products are so good and make visitors to your site eager to deal with you.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Garda World Security was founded in 1995 by Stephan Cretier,
using money from a second mortgage on his home. Headquartered in Montreal, it
is now one of the world’s ten largest security providers – notably of armored
cars and security guards. Garda has more than 200 offices in the Americas,
Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It is also one of the top three cash
logistics brands in North America, handling more than $5 billion (!) every day.
The main About Us page is here.

OVERALL GRADE: B

Products/Services: C

The main
About Us page – the one that the About link in the footer leads to – gives
a good summary of Garda’s purpose and its global reach. But as an introduction
to the site and to Garda company history in general, it’s weak. The top of this
page (and several others in the About Us section) is occupied by an image that
fills most of the space on a desktop screen. Here, it’s a scene of a highway at
night that has no obvious relation to Garda.

The size of the photo is a serious problem because the
left-hand navigation menu is tacked onto it, so the menu that should entice
visitors is out of sight once they scroll down to the page’s text.

And there are more problems. The divisions of the company
aren’t mentioned in the text of the main About Us page. Why not have photos with captions as teasers? The
links within the text to other pages on the site are formatted in a discretely
elegant way that makes them easy to miss.

Another problem: on the main About Us page, the menu
options are Our Businesses, Locations, News and Media, and Careers. But in the
footer of every page, the About menu offers the choices of Our Team, Fast
Facts, Our History, Governance, and Garda in the Community. The inconsistency
is confusing.

Personality: A

The Our Team page starts
off right with a bio of Stephan Cretier (Garda’s founder, chairman, president
and CEO) that sets out how he founded the company and segues into its current
global scope. Nice use of corporate storytelling!

We do cavil at some of the phrasing. For example: “Named
‘Entrepreneur of the Decade’ by Profit Magazine in 2011 as one of eleven
remarkable Canadian CEOs, Stephan Cretier is ...”: was Cretier the Entrepreneur
of the Decade, or one of eleven remarkable Canadian CEOs, or both? Our Commandment 9
of About Us pages is “Worship clarity.” That includes making sure that
every sentence is unambiguous.

Accessibility: B

A red Contact Us bar at the foot of every page allows
visitors to send an email. The Contact
page (accessible via the footer) offers only an online form for contact.
Clicking the link within the text to Locations takes us to a
page that has phones and addresses. But the existence of that page isn’t
obvious due to the annoyingly subtle format used for links.

TAKEAWAY

Take care to make navigation easy and obvious, and never be
elegant at the expense of ease of use. Your business history deserves to be
easily accessible.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). To talk about your About Us
page, contact us!

Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

CorporateHistory.net can help you turn your company history into an effective and beautiful book, DVD, Web site, keynote speech, or campaign. Whether you want to celebrate a company anniversary, honor a retiring CEO, or strategize your corporate storytelling, CorporateHistory.net can help. We believe organizations suffer when their memory erodes, just as people do. Your institutional memory is a stranded asset until you put it to work. Then it becomes a powerful, cost-effective tool for marketing, community relations, and employee pride.Please visit our website:http://www.corporatehistory.net/